NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2012/07/13

Dear Friends of NCSE,
Encouraging news from South Korea and a new batch of videos on NCSE's
YouTube channel.

ENCOURAGING NEWS FROM SOUTH KOREA
The plan to eliminate examples of evolution from textbooks in South
Korea is under reconsideration. As NCSE previously reported, the South
Korean Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology revealed in May
2012 that, due to a petition from a creationist-linked group, textbook
publishers were preparing to eliminate the evolution of the horse and
of Archaeopteryx from their high school biology textbooks. South
Korean biologists complained that the decision was taken without
consulting them, one telling Nature (June 5, 2012), "The ministry just
sent the petition out to the publishing companies and let them judge."
Now, however, "[t]he South Korean government is poised to appoint a
new committee that will revisit a controversial plan to drop two
examples of evolutionary theory from high school textbooks," according
to Science Insider (July 6, 2012), and about fifty prominent South
Korean scientists are preparing to submit a petition to the government
calling for the proposed changes to be rejected. "When these things
are done, I think it will turn out that after all Korean science will
not surrender to religion, so to speak," Jae Choe, an evolutionary
biologist at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, told Science Insider.
For the stories in Nature and Science Insider, visit:
http://www.nature.com/news/south-korea-surrenders-to-creationist-demands-1.10773http://news.sciencemag.org/scienceinsider/2012/07/south-korea-to-reconsider-plan.html
And for NCSE's previous coverage of international events, visit:
http://ncse.com/news/international
VIDEOS, VIDEOS, VIDEOS
NCSE is pleased to announce the addition of a further batch of videos
to NCSE's YouTube channel. Especially noteworthy is Eugenie C. Scott
speaking on "The public understanding of evolution and the KISS
principle" at the University of Idaho in 2009, on the occasion of her
receiving the first Stephen Jay Gould Prize from the Society for the
Study of Evolution. Also featured are "Reason and creationism" at the
Global Atheist Convention, "Creationism, evolution, education -- and
politics" and "Climate change and evolution denial -- the parallels"
at Saginaw Valley State University, "Creationism in and outside of the
US" at the 6th World Skeptics Congress, "Florida's 'critical thinking'
bills" at the University of South Florida, and "What would Darwin say
to today's creationists?" at Transylvania University, all from 2012,
and "Why creationism isn't science" at Denkfest Zürich and "The Texas
evolution wars" at the Texas Freethought Convention, both from 2011.
Additionally, there are videos of Barbara Forrest (a member of NCSE's
board of directors) discussing "The fraud of academic freedom" at the
Texas Freethought Convention in 2011; Mark McCaffrey explaining why he
is "Skeptical about climate skeptics" to Bay Area Skeptics in 2012;
Eric Meikle discussing "Darwin and the human fossil record: 150 years
of discovery, exploration, and debate" at Eastern Illinois University
in 2012; Steve Newton explaining "Creationism vs. evolution: The
meaning to our schools and society" at the Oakmont Sunday Symposium in
2012 and "Anti-evolution and anti-climate science bills laid bare" to
Berkeley Atheists in 2012; and Zack Kopplin -- the intrepid student
who spearheaded the effort to repeal his home state's so-called
Louisiana Science Education Act in 2011 and again in 2012 -- receiving
the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award from the Playboy Foundation
in 2012. Tune in and enjoy!
For NCSE's YouTube channel, visit:
http://www.youtube.com/NatCen4ScienceEd
Thanks for reading. And don't forget to visit NCSE's website --
http://ncse.com -- where you can always find the latest news on
evolution and climate education and threats to them.
--
Sincerely,
Glenn Branch
Deputy Director
National Center for Science Education, Inc.
420 40th Street, Suite 2
Oakland, CA 94609-2509
510-601-7203 x305
fax: 510-601-7204
800-290-6006
branch@ncse.comhttp://ncse.com
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Antievolutionists Say the Darndest Things

Antievolutionists often express outrage over alleged incivility from those who oppose their efforts to evade the establishment clause of the First Amendment. But they have no difficulty in dishing out the abuse themselves. Here is a sample from the Invidious Comparisons thread that documents egregious behavior on the part of the religious antievolution advocates.

IDC advocate Phillip E. Johnson:

Gould’s uncomfortable situation reminds me of the self-created predicament of Mikhail Gorbachev in the last years of the Soviet Empire. Gorbachev recognized that something had gone wrong with the Communist system, but thought that the system itself could be preserved if it was reformed. His democratic friends warned him that the Marxist fundamentalists would inevitably turn against him, but he was unwilling to endanger his position in the ruling elite by following his own logic to its necessary conclusion. Gould, like Gorbachev, deserves immense credit for bringing glasnost to a closed society of dogmatists. And, like Gorbachev, he lives on as a sad reminder of what happens to those who lack the nerve to make a clean break with a dying theory.